Neural correlates of error awareness.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• Errors trigger performance adjustments and autonomic responses.
• The role of conscious error awareness in these processes is not well understood.
• The posterior frontomedian cortex (pFMC) is implicated in performance monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural correlates of conscious error perception.
• To differentiate brain activity associated with aware versus unaware errors.
• To explore the relationship between error awareness and post-error behavioral adjustments.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study.
• Utilized an antisaccade task to elicit aware and unaware errors.
• Region of interest (ROI) analysis guided by meta-analysis results.

Main Results:

• Error-related activity observed in the rostral cingulate zone (RCZ), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and insular cortex.
• Left anterior inferior insular cortex activity was higher for aware errors.
• Post-error adjustments (slowing) were only observed after aware errors and correlated with RCZ activity.

Conclusions:

• Rostral cingulate zone (RCZ) activity alone is insufficient for error awareness.
• Conscious error perception, particularly involving the insular cortex, is crucial for subsequent behavioral adjustments.
• The RCZ signal supports post-error adjustments primarily when errors are consciously perceived.